Vaccines - yay or neigh?

I am taking LO to her technically 2 month apt at the docs soon and I know she's due for a bunch of vaccines but I don't know which. My fiancé and I have decided to do our research on what she is supposed to be getting, and I figured I'd start here.

What are some of you ladies doing with your kids schedules, and why do you feel it is important to get or not to get any specific vaccines?

Comments (14)

We have decided to delay on all accounts after several conversations with the doc and consulting Dr. Sears' Vaccine Book. My son is now 9 months. I suggest looking through this book as this is such a personal decision and you have so many options. There are a lot of peds out there that will be supportive to delayed and alternative schedules or no vaxing. Be aware that you may have to sign something indicating your reasons for an alternative schedule as there are legal issues surrounding vaccinations and your doc may need this on file.

As a very crunchy Mamma, I am very, very, very pro-vax. Certainly some people are more sensitive than others and a staggered schedule is valid.

I won't refer to Mary Tocco because she is completely uneducated (she's an office manager at a chiropractor and the inventor of a DVD with unsubstaniated claims and unresearched facts about vaccines). But the easiest thing to do is refer you to the rate of infant mortality since vaccines.

Infant mortality rates are 1/2 now than what they were in 1980. They are down 600% since 1955. This is due to vaccines. And not because one person gets vaccinated, but because the general population gets vaccinated and doesn't pass things like whooping cough, polio, measles, mumps, etc. to newborns.

Vaccination is the original "Think Globally Act Locally" solution.

People didn't stop vaccinating and question vaccinations until Andrew Wakefield falsified his autism/vaccine studies in 1998. Then it became some kind of trend.

Dr. Sears is very pro-vax as well and his staggered schedule has been created only to allay the fears of the anti-vax people: from his website: The bottom line is that more and more parents want options. If we donâ€™t provide them with options they are comfortable with, more parents will opt out of vaccines altogether. We will then see more and more disease fatalities and complications.

What exactly do you guys mean by crunchy also I work with kids and children are not allowed to come to school, preschool or daycare without having their vaccines so if you don't vaccine what do you guys do about them attending school

I am generally skeptical of western medicine but we do all vaccines on the standard schedule. Here are my reasons:

1. I have never seen any convincing data against vaccination and I have an academic background in research so I have some idea how to evaluate what I'm reading.

2. We live in a town with a big research university where people are coming and going from all over the world. We have friends who have personally been affected by polio, smallpox, and other diseases that most Americans have no experience with.The deep and lasting fear of people who have witnessed these diseases firsthand is very convincing.

3. We share our air/handrails/grocery carts/library books/etc with lots of people who were in a developing country last week. The chances that we'll be exposed to a vaccine-preventable disease are higher than in most small towns.

4. When we vaccinate, we protect the people who cannot vaccinate (because they're too young, or allergic to a vaccine component, or have some other health problem).

Sure there are minute risks to vaccination (such as a deadly allergic reaction). But the benefits are so strong and the risks so minute, that it's a risk I take without hesitation.

We are going to selectively vax. I only take some, and that is after a lot of research. There are a lot more benefits to vaxing than not. The risks are pretty small with the older, tested vaccines. The newer ones are the ones I question. If you took it and didn't have a problem, most likely your LO won't have a problem. In TN, children can not go to public or private schools if they don't have certain vaccines.

My son is 4 months old....I haven't given him any shots yet...but want to vaccinate him 'selectively' as MrsSalao said. I didn't give him his rotavirus vaccine and now he is too old to begin it anyway. I decided against it because my son has had digestive issues since he was born :( and giving him a live virus I just couldn't see it benefitting him at that moment. Not to mention my son has small holes in his heart which I am hoping will close. He has an appointment in October with a cardiologist to check. I guess I am just waiting until he heals?! He is not and will never be in a daycare and I am very selective as to who handles him right now...just family and friends. I received my vaccines in the hospital. I guess I am not for or against vaccines. I just hope/wish that they would come up with better ways to make them?!! Using monkey kidney cells, formaldehyde, mercury and aluminum just scare me. I am so thankful that most children do well when immunized, I just worry for my child since there is a risk. I have read DR SEARS vaccine book, and yes he is pro vax but he also is understanding about why parents choose not to vax. I def. care about our general population as a whole and of course if everyone vaccinated it would probably be better, but I am just having an issue injecting my poor kid with all that 'crap' ...right now atleast. And of course I don't want my baby to every be sick or at risk. What I will prob. end up doing is just giving his shots just at a slower pace.

I would suggest reading the vaccine book though...I found it super helpful and I feel like he is a very credible source as he is a very well known doctor and not completely anti or pro vaccine. :)

I am super crunchy and I am also very pro-vaccine. Vaccines have saved many lives. I personally think the anti-vax arguement that your immune system will become stronger by fighting off diseases such as whooping cough is ridiculous and dangerous. If that was true then so many people would not have died from these diseases in the first place.

The recommended schedule has windows for each vaccine so parents can give them a few or even one at a time if they are concerned about adverse reactions. Herd immunity is important and with so many people choosing not to vaccinate, many people who cannot recieve vaccinations are in danger of contracting diseases that could make them very sick or even lead to death.